An EcoGeek at Wired NextFest

Celine Ruben-Salama, an EcoGeek, was lucky to get a preview of the exhibits at the Wired NextFest opening party yesterday. Stay tuned for more in depth coverage, but here follows a quick run through of the eco-tech she spotted:

nextfest3 I spent the better part of my visit in the Future of Green Pavilion. There I found the quiterevolution, vertical axis wind turbine that we wrote about earlier this month. As the name suggests, the quiterevolution, is practically silent. It improves on the traditional horizontal axis wind turbine by not needing to change its orientation to track the wind.

An American company Novomer is exhibiting biodegradable plastics made in part from waste from the orange juice industry. The aliphatic polycarbonates have unique properties that show promise for a wide range of commercial applications. According to the company website, "these materials are synthesized through the alternating copolymerization of epoxides and carbon dioxide." We believe them.

The Swedish Interactive Institute is showing five conceptual pieces, designed to allow the objects in our homes communicate to with us in different ways and shed light (literally in some cases) on energy consumption habits. They call the exhibit, Innovation for Conservation: Technology and Energy as Design Materials.

More After The Jump

GE, the title sponsor of Nextfest, has an impressive pavilion dedicated to what the company used to call "ecomagination." On display: the 1.5 Mega Watt wind turbine, the Hybrid locomotive, an interactive computer game about water filtration systems and other clean tech innovations.

The Future of transportation pavillion is predictably full of exhibits highlighting fuel cell technology, a hydrogen gas station, ethanol/flex fuel systems all situated in an artificial corn field.

Just like in the past, the Future of Health includes eating your veggies. The non-profit group thegrowingconnection.org is displaying EarthBox, a low-cost and highly water-efficient food-growing tool. Made out of recycled plastic, the boxes feature a simple internal irrigation system that allows for fool proof growing.